Firefox director says Apple is “looking to bypass the web”

Is Apple "looking to bypass the web" with their new Mac App Store? That's the charge levelled by Firefox director Mike Beltzner, who took to Twitter during Apple's keynote to ponder out loud "when Apple will stop shipping Safari." It seems the subject of Beltzner's ire is the Cupertino company's attempt to package the internet into individual, neatly bounded apps, complete with some reasonably draconian guidelines over functionality and stability.

For instance, no "beta," "demo," "trial," or "test" versions are permitted, nor apps that change "the native user interface elements or behaviors of Mac OS X." Beltzner's comments prompted an unsurprising retaliation from the Apple faithful, accusing the developer of being paranoid over whether future versions of Firefox would be available on OS X 10.7 (something he denies).